Critic’s Choice

Thu Mar 08, 2018 at 4:30 pm

By Lawrence A. Johnson

“Pan Playing his Pipes” by Paulus Moreelse (1571-1638).

It’s a bit of a gamble to base a Critic’s Choice on a composer whose work one is completely unfamiliar with. But Chicago Fringe Opera has been so consistently successful in their past productions (As One, Song from the Uproar, and In the Penal Colony) that one can feel reasonably confident in doing so.

The storefront opera company will present the world premiere of Ross Crean’s The Great God Pan Saturday night. Based upon an 1890 novella by Arthur Machen, Crean’s chamber opera tells of a surgery gone wrong that ultimately kicks off a series of “mysterious supernatural occurrences.”